The Legal Aid Society is seeking a Staff Attorney to represent low-income New Yorkers fighting to secure or maintain essential government benefits including Cash Assistance and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (“SNAP”). These benefits allow low-income individuals and families access to food, housing, and basic necessities. Defending our community’s right to these benefits is crucial to our clients’ ability to live with dignity and to maintaining the diversity that defines Queens.
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<b> ESSENTIAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES</b>
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<li>Represent low-income clients in administrative hearings and affirmative litigation to defend their right to receive benefits</li>
<li>Engage in policy advocacy</li>
<li>Work collaboratively with external partners</li>
<li>Conduct community education, training, and outreach</li>
<li>Work with pro bono lawyers</li>
<li>Conduct off-site intake, including during evening hours as needed</li>
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<li>Admission to New York State Bar, or recent J.D. who has sat for the first available bar exam</li>
<li>Commitment to advocacy on behalf of low-income people</li>
<li>Ability and willingness to engage in a structural analysis of the systems impacting our clients and to work to improve or dismantle those systems</li>
<li>Willingness to engage in field work</li>
<li>Excellent written, oral advocacy, and computer skills</li>
<li>Excellent organizational skills and ability to multi-task</li>
<li>Ability to work independently, as well as in a team, and to manage a large workload</li>
<li>Ability to coordinate and collaborate successfully with other groups and organizations</li>
<li>Proficiency in languages other than English, especially Spanish, is desirable but not required</li>
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<b> SALARY TRANSPARENCY </b>
The posting reflects the range of potential salaries for the role. The specific salary offers will be dependent on candidate qualifications, including collectively bargained salary steps for unionized roles.
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<b> Salary Range/ Salary: </b><b>$80,619 - $142,218</b>
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<b> SALARY AND BENEFITS</b>
The leadership of The Legal Aid Society believes in attracting and retaining exceptional talent committed to serving our clients. We offer a generous benefits package including health insurance, paid vacation, disability, and life insurance, and more. Salaries for our unionized jobs are governed by our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Please visit our Careers page for additional information. Salary and benefits information will be available to applicants, when and if an offer is made.
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<b> OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION</b>
The leadership of The Legal Aid Society is committed to a work culture of zealous advocacy, respect, diversity and inclusion, client-oriented defense, access to justice and excellent representation. We are dedicated to building a strong professional relationship with each of our clients, to understanding their diverse circumstances, and to meeting their needs. Our ability to achieve these goals depends on the efforts of all of us.
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<b> HOW TO APPLY</b>
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All applications must be completed online. We do not accept paper submissions. Please visit our Careers Page to review all current job postings, and instructions on the application process. For technical difficulties or questions regarding this posting, please email <b>jobpostquestions@legal-aid.org</b>.
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As an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer, The Legal Aid Society prohibits discriminatory employment actions against and treatment of its employees and applicants for employment based on actual or perceived race or color, size (including bone structure, body size, height, shape, and weight), religion or creed, alienage or citizenship status, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity (one’s internal deeply-held sense of one’s gender which may be the same or different from one’s sex assigned at birth); gender expression (the representation of gender as expressed through, for example, one’s name, choice of pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, or body characteristics; gender expression may not conform to traditional gender-based stereotypes assigned to specific gender identities), disability, marital status, relationship and family structure (including domestic partnerships, polyamorous families and individuals, chosen family, platonic co-parents, and multigenerational families), genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristics, military status, domestic violence victim status, arrest or pre-employment conviction record, credit history, unemployment status, caregiver status, salary history, or any other characteristic protected by law.